Instagram will finally improve how its Search works
What's the story
In a blog post penned by Instagram's head Adam Mosseri, the Facebook-owned social media platform explained how its Search feature works.
And, now an upcoming update to Instagram is set to change how the app will display more relevant results when you use the Search feature. Mosseri wrote that the "full search result page" will make searching on the app more useful and convenient.
Twitter Post
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri's explanation of the upcoming changes
How Search Works 🔎
— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) August 25, 2021
In this video I cover...
- How we rank search
- How to show up on search
- How we keep search safe
- What’s new for search
If you’d like to dig in further check out our new blog post: https://t.co/aJmnNEqbKZ pic.twitter.com/n0uc7rG0Nn
As things stand
Instagram presently displays just accounts and hashtags in Search results
Presently, Instagram's Search feature only displays top results (accounts and hashtags), accounts related to your search query, audio, hashtags, and places.
The present implementation has a separate Discover page under the Search tab that displays posts, Reels, and IGTV videos based on your tastes that Instagram has profiled over time.
However, Discover is seldom related to anything you're looking for.
Coming soon
Soon, Instagram's 'Top' results page will show images, videos
The new Search page in the pipeline will (finally) display images and videos in the search results, hopefully making the process of finding what you are looking for more direct and simple.
In the screenshot shared by Mosseri, the "Top" results tab displays the image and video content in a mixed size grid just like the Discover section.
Factors
Instagram will first implement Search improvements for English language users
The blog post explained that Instagram will start with getting keyword-based search for English language users right first, before diverting attention to improving the algorithm so users can view results that don't have metadata exactly matching the search query.
To implement this, Instagram explained that it might add parameters to the existing factors including the search phrase, your activity, the results' popularity, and likes.
Catching up
Instagram advised users about boosting themselves in Search results
TheNextWeb noted that TikTok already presents results in the manner that Instagram is aiming for. Not to mention, the Bytedance-owned app's results are usually spot-on and Instagram has some serious catching up to do.
Advising users on how to show up in results (or not), Instagram suggests using fitting handle and profile names while including relevant keywords and locations in bios and post's captions.